Myeloma research at Erasmus MC Cancer Center has an active clinical development program. As the largest clinical center for Myeloma in the Netherlands we diagnose and treat patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed disease. The Hematology department of the ErasmusMC Cancer Center has a special clinical ward and facilities to investigate novel anti-myeloma drugs in Clinical Trials and numerous phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 trials are continuously ongoing.
Clinical studies are supported by an experienced clinical research lab specialized in serving a a central laboratory for sample analyses, storage and distribution for in the context of large international trials.
Pieter Sonneveld is the chairman of the Dutch Hemato-Oncology HOVON Myeloma Working Group, which coordinates clinical trials in the Netherlands and Belgium. Recent clinical trials include studies in transplant-eligible patients (HOVON 50, 65, 95, 131 and 147) and non-transplant eligible patients (HOVON 87, 123, 126, 143). Within these trials the clinical team collaborates with many centers in the Netherlands and Belgium. Correlative laboratory studies for clinical outcome research are performed at the Myeloma Research lab Rotterdam and in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC.
We have co-founded the European Myeloma Network EMN, which serves as a platform for international clinical trials in Multiple Myeloma (P. Sonneveld, chairman). Several large international prospective clinical trials and registration studies are ongoing or planned in newly diagnosed and relapsed myeloma, amyloidosis and plasma cell leukemia. The laboratory in Rotterdam is a central reference lab for response evaluation and molecular analyses in EMN. Through EMN we participate in the EU-funded Harmony project for analysis of big data in hemato-oncology and we coordinate the myeloma studies.. We cooperate with the European Hematology Association and coordinate its Scientific Working Group on Multiple Myeloma. A collaboration is ongoing with the American Society of Hematology for the development of a worldwide big database in myeloma (i2TEAMM). We are member of the International Myeloma Working Group, the International Myeloma Society and the International Myeloma Foundation.